Social Security Not Broken

I object to the word "rescue" in your headline, which implies an emergency when, in fact, there is none. Bush himself used the word "fix," which implies Social Security is broken when, in fact, it is not.

Social Security payments from future recipients have built up a huge surplus. One projection says the surplus will stop growing in 2018. At that point, the surplus will be drawn upon to make full payment of all obligations until 2042, or until 2052 according to the Congressional Budget Office, or until much later according to some respected economists, depending upon the performance of the economy.

In 2042 (or 2052) enough funding will still be coming in to pay more than 70 percent of Social Security's obligations indefinitely.And most of the Baby Boomers will not be here to draw Social Security beyond 2058). These projections may call for minor adjustments in taxation and payouts, but not for borrowing $2 trillion to subsidize the partial privatization of this excellent program of old-age protection. It is so good, fact, that there is discussion in England of adopting it as a new model for old-age protection there, replacing the privatized system Margaret Thatcher introduced that has failed to deliver the payouts her experts projected. We should pay close attention to what one respected Financial Times writer (Norma Cohen) calls "a bloody mess" in England before using Thatcher's ideas to "fix" a program that isn't broken.